children, kings their subjects; and, that they may do this the more boldly and securely, I have somewhat dashed the authority of their high commission; upon which whereas there are divers pursuivants (men of the worst kind and condition, resembling our flies and familiars* attending upon the inquisition) whose office and employment is to disturb the catholicks, searching their houses for priests, holy vestments, books, beads, crucifixes, and the like religious appurtenances. I have caused the execution of their offices to be slackened, that so an open way may be given to our spiritual instruments, for the free exercise of their faculties. And yet, when these pursuivants were in greatest authority, a small bribe in the country would blind their eyes, or a little greater at court, or in the exchequer, frustrate and cross all their actions; for that their malice went off like squibs, made a great crack to fright children and new-born babes, but hurt no old men of catholick spirits. And this is the effect of all other their courses of proceedings in this kind, in all their judicial courts; whether known catholicks committed, as they stile them, or often summoned and cited, threatened and bound over; but the danger is past, so soon as the officer hath his fee paid him; then the execution goeth no further: nay, upon my conscience, they are as glad, when there are offenders in that kind, because they are bountiful; and the officers do their best to favour them, that they may increase, and so their revenue and gain come in freely. And, if they should be sent to prison, even that place, for the most part, is made a sanctuary to them; as the old Romans were wont to shut up such, by ways of restraint, as they meant to preserve from the people's fury; for they live safe in prison, till we have time to work their liberty, and assure their lives; and, in the mean time, their place of restraint is, as it were, a study to them, where they may have opportunity to confer together, as in a college, and to arm themselves in unity against the single adversary abroad.

But, quoth the inquisitor-general, how do they for books, when they have occasion either to write, or to dispute?

My lord, replied Gondamore, all the libraries belonging to the Roman catholicks, through the land, are at their command; from whence they have all such collections, as they can require, gathered to their hands, as well from thence, as from all the libraries of both universities, and even the books themselves, if it be requisite. Besides, I have made it a principal part of my employment to buy all the manuscripts, and other rare and ancient authors, out of the hands of the hereticks; so that there is no great scholar dies in the land, but my agents are dealing with his books; insomuch as even their learned Isaac Casaubon's library was in election to be ours, had not their vigilant king, who foreseeth all dangers, and hath his eye busy in every place, prevented my plot. For, after the death of that great scholar, I sent to request a catalogue of his books, with the price, intending not to be outvied by any man, if money would have fetched them. Because, beside the damage that side should have received by the less prosecuting the cause against Cardinal Baronius, we might have made a good advan

*These are two of the meanest officers in the inquisition.

Nor

tage of his notes, collections, castigations, censures, and criticisms for our party, and framed and put out others under his name, at our plea. sure. But this was foreseen by their Prometheus, who sent that torturer of ours, the Bishop of Winchester, to search and sort the papers, and to seal up the study, giving a large and a princely allowance to the relict of Casaubon, with a bountiful pension and provision for her and her's. But this plot, failing at that time, hath not ever done so. had the university of Oxford so triumphed in their many manuscripts, given by that famous knight, Sir Thomas Bodley, if either I had been then employed, or this course of mine then thought upon; for I would labour, what I might, this way, or any other way, to disarm them, or either to translate their best authors hither, or, at least, to leave none, but in the hands of Roman catholicks, who are assuredly ours; and, to this end, a special eye would be had upon the library of one Sir Robert Cotton (an ingrosser of antiquities) the most choice and singular pieces might be gleaned, and gathered up by a catholick hand. ther let any man think, that descending thus low to petty particulars is unworthy an ambassador, or a small avail for the ends we aim at; since we see every mountain consists of several sands, and there is no more profitable conversing for statesmen, than amongst scholars; especially the king, for whom we watch, is the king of scholars, and loves to live altogether almost in their element. Besides, if we can by any means continue differences in their church, or make them wider, or get distaste betwixt their clergy and common lawyers, who are men of greatest power in the land, the benefit will be ours, and the consequent great, opening way for us to come between; for personal quarrels produce real questions. As he was prosecuting this discourse, one of the secretaries, who waited without the chamber, desired entrance; and, being admitted, delivered letters, which he had newly received from the post, directed to the president, and the rest of the council, from his catholick majesty; the contents whereof were to this effect:

6

Right trusty and well beloved cousins and counsellors, we greet you well: Whereas, we had a hope, by our agents in England and Ger6 many, to effect that great work of the western empire; and likewise, on the other side, to suppress Europe, at one instant, and, infolding it in our arms, make the easier road upon the Turks in Asia, and, at length, reduce all the world to our catholick command; and, whereas, to this end, we had secret and sure plots and projects on foot in all those places, and good intelligence in all courts; know now, that we have received late and sad news of the apprehension of 6 our trusty and able pensioner Barnevelt, and of the discovery of other our intendments; so that our hopes are at present adjourned, till 6 some other more convenient and more auspicious time; we therefore will you presently, upon the sight hereof, to break up your consultations, and repair straight to our presence, there to take further di rections, and proceed as necessity of time and cause shall require.' With that his excellency, and the whole house, struck with amazement, crossed their foreheads, rose up in a sad silence, and brake up this treaty abruptly; and, without tarriance, took horse, and posted to court, from whence expect news, the next fair wind.

In the mean time, let not those be secure, whom it concerns to be roused up, knowing that this aspiring Nebuchadnezzar will not lose the glory of his greatness, who continueth still to magnify himself in his great Babylon, until it be spoken, The kingdom is departed from thee,' Daniel iv.

BELVOIR:

BEING A

PINDARICK ODE UPON BELVOIR CASTLE THE SEAT OF THE EARLS OF RUTLAND,

MADE IN THE YEAR 1679. MS.

ACRED Muse, the queen of wit,

SACE

Born and belov'd of mighty Jove,
Take thy harp, and touch the strings,
While melting airs and numbers move;
Sing godlike words for godlike things.
Call thy sisters all, that sit
By flow'ry banks of Helicon;
All their stores and treasures get,
And their artful garbs put on;
All from extasies do flow,
Or slumbers on Parnassus' hill;
All that raptures can bestow,
All lofty fancy and deep judgment know.
Learned rage, poetick fire,

Such as the sybil doth inspire,
And her distorted limbs doth fill,
When the furious God doth come:

Make ready the Pindarick steed,

The fiery headstrong horse;

Hot and fiery tho' he be,

And, in his unbridled course,
Over rocks and mounts doth roam,
And th' unskilful rider throws,
That cannot sit his headlong steed;
Belvoir's height will tame his rage;
Belvoir's hill his pace asswage;
Belvoir! neighbour to the sky,
That with light doth deck its brows,
All his proudest force will need,
Tho' he be with ambrosia fed,
And of Helicon drinks high.

Belvoir's a subject high and great;
Not such as mighty Pindar chose,
An Isthmian, or a Pythian game,
A charioteer, or wrestler's fame.
Bolder flights and fiercer heat
Are requir'd to reach that seat,
Than his Olympian victors could beget;

'Twill task ev'n Pindar's rapid soul to match the lofty head.
Haste, Belvoir calls; my muse, away,

If fear doth not thy footsteps stay,

And, conscious of th' amazing height, thou trembling dost delay.

2.

Th' invoked muse with comely state drew nigh;

And, with a ravishing look,
Half-anger'd, and half-pleas'd, thus spoke:
No more, fond youth, such needless helps invoke ;
For barren subjects only fit,

Where fiction must the room of truth supply,
And, what it wants in worth, make out in wit.
Belvoir hath glory of its own,

A genuine worth not borrow'd from
The daub of rhetorick, or scum

Of heated brain and lavish tongue;

But his own glory from's own worth hath sprung,
And, like the sun, he's his own praise alone.
And, since most other places owe their name,
Not to their own, but to the poet's fame;
From them, while other seats their glory take,
This shall the poet make:

The very sight shall thee inspire
With generous thoughts and active fire,
Till thy deep admiration break

Into the rage of a divine and a resistless flame.
Truth is thy guide; the subject needs not art,
Nor the weak helps, that learning can impart.
This said, there fell upon my soul a dew,
Like that prophetick slumbers doth compile ;
And my extatick soul in raptures flew
In regions far remov'd, and took a view
Of all the glories of the wond'rous isle.

Thrice walk'd my guide and I the fairy round,
Which from th' exalted height did show,

Curiously drawn in miniature below,

The sacred graces of the famous land;

Till, near Trent's crystal stream on hallow'd ground,
The airy guest did make her stand.

3.

See there, cries out my beauteous guide (And then new joy did o'er her visage glide)

Belvoir, art's master piece, and nature's pride,
High in the regions of ethereal air,

Above the troubled atmosphere,

Above the magazines of hail and snow;
Above the place that meteors breeds,
Above the seat where lie the seeds,

Whence raging storms and tempests grow,
That do infest the troubled world below.
See with what comely state

It, unconcern'd, o'erlooks the humble plains,
And, from its eminence, conmands

The fruitful vale, and far out-stretched lands:
As blessed souls, from a bright star, do deign
To take a view of mortal woe,

The scene of miseries below,

And see men hurl'd

By sportive fate about the busy world.
See with what beauty 'tis o'erspread ;
How the exalted head

Looks down with scorn on hills below,
So high and fair, that it a piece of heav'n doth show.
So looks the sun, when from his eastern bed
New ris'n from Tethys blushing red,

Attired in his best array,

Such as he dances with on Easter-day;
He peeps above a distant hill,

And doth the waking world with glory fill,
Such blessed place art thou, but fairer still.

4.

Nor art thou alone for pleasure fit;
Soft case and melting charms
Th' enjoyments o' th' luxuriant land;
Thy stately head was destin'd to command.
Mars oft from hence hath sounded his alarms;
Safety and joy together meet,

Soft peace and rougher war do greet;

Thou'rt charming to thy friends, and awful to thy foes. 'Twas here the Roman eagle chose to rest;

'Twas on this rock she built her nest;
Hence could her conquer'd realm survey;
Here ruled with unbounded sway,

And, when she pleas'd, flew down, and took her prey.
Here Margidunum's stately castle stood:

The sinking Romans lasting stay,
Glutted so oft with British blood.
Oft they attempted it in vain,
As oft they back again were driven :
Unhappy people! that not only fought